Child Health News and Research

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New research examines screen time in home-based and center-based child care settings

In a new study, the amount of television viewed by many young children in child care settings doubles the previous estimates of early childhood screen time, with those in home-based settings watching significantly more on average than those in center-based daycares.

23 Nov 2009

HKI to raise over $700,000 for the SickKids Global Child Health Program

To celebrate the United Nations Universal Children's Day, HealthyKids International (HKI) today announces its campaign to raise over $700,000 to fund SickKids Global Child Health Program in Ghana, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

21 Nov 2009

UNICEF report highlights gains in child health, while 1b still lack essential services

A special edition of UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children report, released 20 years after the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, shows that "fewer youngsters are dying and more are going to school - but an estimated 1 billion still lack services essential to their survival and development," the Associated Press reports.

20 Nov 2009

Lancet examines Uganda's child-health volunteers

A Lancet World Report examines how a small group of village volunteers trained in basic health care are helping to improve the health of Ugandan children. "In a country where government spending on health is US$39 per person and 13% of children younger than 5 years die, trained volunteer health workers can make a substantial difference in remote rural areas," said Jerome Kabakyenga, dean of Medicine at the Mbara University of Science and Technology (MUST).

20 Nov 2009

Tips for lessening needle anxiety

Experts believe fear of needles may be preventing people from rolling up their sleeves for the H1N1 vaccination.

18 Nov 2009

Majority of mothers personally manage their children's health this coming winter

Three out of four mothers with a child between the ages of two through 12 are extremely, very, or somewhat concerned about their child's health this coming winter, according to a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation and commissioned by Bionorica, an international company pioneering clinical research of natural remedies including Sinupret® for Kids, a product which supports healthy respiratory function in children (www.bionoricausa.com).

18 Nov 2009

CTSA institutions receive NIH grants to study drug safety and efficacy in children

Studying drugs in pediatric populations is challenging because drugs often affect children differently than they do adults. The scarcity of pediatric studies limits the ability of doctors and scientists to predict drug dosing, safety and efficacy in children. To address this gap, the National Institutes of Health announced today 18 grants to help determine outcome measures and increase the likelihood of success of future trials of treatments for children.

18 Nov 2009

Health, policy experts gather for 3-day conference on family planning

By offering family planning services to people seeking HIV/AIDS information and treatment, Africa's population growth rate could be curbed by 2.5 percent, health experts said Monday during an international family health conference in Kampala, Uganda, Agence France-Presse reports (11/16).

18 Nov 2009

Report calls for refocusing health spending in developing countries to save children's lives

"More than 24,000 infants die daily from preventable diseases in developing countries," and child deaths have fallen in countries where governments "have shown a high level of political leadership on child health," World Vision International said in a new report (.pdf) released on Monday as part of a five-year campaign to reduce child deaths worldwide, the Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

17 Nov 2009

New faces of HIV/AIDS: A report

World AIDS Day 2009 will be marked with both grim and hopeful data: more than 25 million people have died of AIDS worldwide since 1981; 33 million are living with HIV/AIDS. While potent, effective medications have changed an HIV diagnosis from death sentence to manageable chronic illness in resource rich countries, global rates of infection still outstrip prevention and treatment capacity.

16 Nov 2009

Low-cost, simple interventions could save 2.5 million child lives a year: World Vision

Almost a third of the children under age five who die each year could be saved if governments rebalance health spending to ensure low-cost, simple interventions such as safe water and hygiene, bed nets and basic maternal and newborn care, leading aid agency World Vision said today. Currently, 8.8 million children a year die before age five, most of preventable causes.

16 Nov 2009

CHF commends the passage of health reform bill; disapproves move to eliminate CHIP

Children's Health Fund (CHF), a national organization that advocates for and provides clinical care to disadvantaged and medically underserved children, today issued a Report Card that graded the child health provisions in the Congressional Health Reform bill that was passed in the House of Representatives on November 7.

11 Nov 2009

Children with autism have slower pupil responses to light change: Study

Autism affects 1 in 150 children today, making it more common than childhood cancer, juvenile diabetes and pediatric AIDS combined. Despite its widespread effect, autism is not well understood and there are no objective medical tests to diagnose it. Recently, University of Missouri researchers have developed a pupil response test that is 92.5 percent accurate in separating children with autism from those with typical development. In the study, MU scientists found that children with autism have slower pupil responses to light change.

11 Nov 2009

Affordable health care can save millions of women, newborns, and children in sub-Saharan Africa

The lives of almost 4 million women, newborns, and children in sub-Saharan Africa could be saved every year if well-established, affordable health care interventions reached 90 percent of families, according to a joint report by the national science academies of seven African countries.

10 Nov 2009

UC San Diego to launch new multidisciplinary program on health and migration

The University of California, San Diego will lead a new Center of Expertise on Migration and Health as one of three multi-campus initiatives launched by the University of California system under the auspices of the new UC Global Health Institute.

10 Nov 2009

WHO report calls for improved health care for women, girls

A new WHO report, released Monday, said women tend to "receive poorer quality care throughout their lives, particularly as teenagers and elderly people" even though they live six to eight years longer than men, Reuters reports. The WHO said women worldwide are "'denied a chance to develop their full human potential' because many of their critical medical needs are ignored" (MacInnis, 11/9).

10 Nov 2009

NIH awards UAB School of Public Health $11.5M to research new methods of identifying youth with HIV

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health has been awarded a total of $11.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to explore new ways to identify adolescents and young adults infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and link them to medical care.

7 Nov 2009

Physical education plays a key role for low-income communities in curbing obesity and improving fitness

School-based physical education plays a key role in curbing obesity and improving fitness among adolescents from low-income communities, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and UC Berkeley.

6 Nov 2009

Exposure to higher levels of air pollution increases infants' risk for bronchiolitis

Infants who are exposed to higher levels of air pollution are at increased risk for bronchiolitis, according to a new study.

6 Nov 2009

MSF calls for sustained commitment to global HIV/AIDS funding

During a press conference on Thursday, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that the "global economic crisis and calls to commit funds to other health crises" threatened to undermine recent gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press reports. MSF "says money for other health issues should be given in addition to money for [HIV/]AIDS" (11/5).

5 Nov 2009

Child Health News and Research

New research examines screen time in home-based and center-based child care settings

HKI to raise over $700,000 for the SickKids Global Child Health Program

UNICEF report highlights gains in child health, while 1b still lack essential services

Lancet examines Uganda's child-health volunteers

Tips for lessening needle anxiety

Majority of mothers personally manage their children's health this coming winter

CTSA institutions receive NIH grants to study drug safety and efficacy in children

Health, policy experts gather for 3-day conference on family planning

Report calls for refocusing health spending in developing countries to save children's lives

New faces of HIV/AIDS: A report

Low-cost, simple interventions could save 2.5 million child lives a year: World Vision

CHF commends the passage of health reform bill; disapproves move to eliminate CHIP

Children with autism have slower pupil responses to light change: Study

Affordable health care can save millions of women, newborns, and children in sub-Saharan Africa

UC San Diego to launch new multidisciplinary program on health and migration

WHO report calls for improved health care for women, girls

NIH awards UAB School of Public Health $11.5M to research new methods of identifying youth with HIV

Physical education plays a key role for low-income communities in curbing obesity and improving fitness

Exposure to higher levels of air pollution increases infants' risk for bronchiolitis

MSF calls for sustained commitment to global HIV/AIDS funding

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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